Journey to Abu Simbel. Part 2 - The actual journey.
I prepared for this trip by carefully scouring the Internet. Unfortunately, there wasn't much information. I looked at several travel options, taking into account the fact that my daughter is 10 years old, so that this trip would be as less tiring and safe as possible for her.
There were several options: firstly, Teztour offers a tour of the "Pearls of Southern Egypt", secondly, they discussed the possibility of an individual excursion with a local guide, and thirdly, they considered a cruise on the Nile with a visit to Abu Simbel.
We ended up on a cruise. What never regretted.
I will say right away that such a long trip is associated with some nuances of traveling around Egypt, and therefore a cruise on the Nile has become the best option for us.
So, at 6 in the morning we left Hurghada for Lukor by car, passed the police control at the exit from Hurghada.
Information for those who want to travel on their own: entry and exit in Luxor for tourists from 6 am to 6 pm. Although if you go by bus for the Egyptians, you may be lucky. I will continue. On the way we made a stop, had breakfast, took a breath and went on. At 9 am we were in Luxor, took the pre-booked tickets to the ship and here we are on the ship.
More about the ship. Motor ship "Nile Plaza" 5 *. Well, what can I say, for 5 days I felt like I was in a film from the life of English aristocrats. The impression was further enhanced by the fact that there were practically only Englishmen on the ship, except for us and my daughter, there were no Russian-speaking people (well, perhaps even our guide). The staff also spoke only English, well, Arabic, of course.
Both the service and the atmosphere on the ship fully corresponded to the declared 5 *. Our cabin was on deck 2. On deck 3 are cabins and a restaurant.
On the upper deck there is a lobby bar, on the bow and stern there are terraces for relaxing: armchairs, tables, a pool, sun loungers.
Very beautiful interior-paintings, fresh flowers, natural wood trim, carpets. And the restaurant is a restaurant, with crystal chandeliers and a change of tablecloths for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For dinner, as expected, a few cutlery, snow-white linen napkins. I was a little worried that my daughter would get confused in the devices, but she did a good job, did not disappoint.
The cabin, of course, is small, but very comfortable and with everything you need. Double bed, dressing table, minibar, TV (but only with Arabic TV), built-in wardrobe in it is also a safe. The bathroom has a shower, washbasin, everything is polished to a shine.
Cleaning in the room-2 times a day! Change of towels - 2 times a day! To be honest, I was very pleasantly surprised.
Meals on the ship FB. That is, a full pvnsion, except for drinks. Drinks are free - only tea and coffee at breakfast and also on time.
For lunch, dinner, and the rest of the time - drinks for extra. fee. All non-alcoholic drinks cost 2 dollars, i. e. a cup of tea or coffee, a 0.5 liter can of cola or juice. All for 2 dollars. A glass of wine is $5, cocktails are more expensive.
To be honest, I took a bottle of whiskey with me, but it didn’t come in handy in the room itself, it’s not interesting, well, in the lobby bar, I won’t come with my bottle of whiskey. Not aristocratic somehow : )
Very friendly staff on the ship - they joked with my daughter all the time (she has better English than me), and in the restaurant they brought her so many desserts all the time that I thought the ship would need to dump ballast by the end of the trip.
After we settled in and rested, we were offered to go to the Luxor Temple. Last year we were in Luxor, but then this temple was not included in the excursion program.
And of course, I appreciated the advantages of an individual excursion, when they tell you what you see on the spot, and do not give general information on the bus, when they answer all the questions that arise on the spot and when you are not limited in time, if you want to go, look, take pictures, but tired, everything, let's go back. After lunch, free time.
Except 1 excursion - all the rest started at 4am - until it gets too hot. That's where I realized what real HEAT is. After dinner we spent either in the lobby or in the pool - even just under the awning on the deck it was hard. The air, like in an oven, is dry and very hot. Ideally, it is better to go on such a trip in winter, but for objective reasons, we can’t do it in winter.
There was a cocktail party on the first night of our stay on the crab.
After dinner in the lobby bar, they served a buffet with snacks and cocktails - they introduced the ship's crew, said representatives of which countries were visiting on the ship - in general, such an evening of acquaintance. We sat for a bit and decided to go for a walk around Luxor.
The city is very picturesque, all the more so unlike our cities. The temples are very beautifully illuminated in the evening - just like the scenery for a historical film. We went to the local McDonald's (I asked for it, interesting). There I was once again convinced that the Arabic 10 minutes and our 10 minutes do not exactly coincide in time. For the first time in my life, I waited 30 minutes at a FAST food restaurant. But I still didn’t have enough exotics, so we decided to drink coffee at a local cafe, I’ll clarify, not in the city center. The coffee is excellent, I had enough exotics - in a fairly large cafe, I was one woman. Even the cosmetologist did not consider me so carefully for the first time (women will understand me).
After 10 minutes, I decided that enough exotics for today, it's time to relax.
DAY 2. In the morning we went to the Valley of the Queens and the Temple of Hatshepsut. We have already been to these places, but we did not deny ourselves the pleasure of visiting these monuments again.
After lunch, the ship sailed from Luxor to Edfu. The banks of the Nile are very picturesque and the landscapes are so diverse - banana plantations, then mountains, then the ruins of temples. We were lucky - we passed the locks before sunset, so that the daughter herself was able to see how it happens. Yes, I was also interested. On the second evening there was a bingo show on the ship. They handed out lottery tickets and raffled off prizes.
Day 3. In the morning we went to see the temple in Edfu. Something after the majestic temples of Lukor, I was not very impressed. When they returned, the ship sailed to Kom-ombo. Almost immediately after sailing, the ship was attacked by boats of traders in shawls, galabeys, etc.
It turns out that it is in these parts that they basically sew everything that is sold in Hurghada and Sharm. In Kom Ombo there was an excursion to a double temple - here the temple may be small, but very interesting both in its architecture and images. We saw an ancient Egyptian calendar carved on one of the walls. Even in this temple, inscriptions have been preserved that have not yet been deciphered by scientists, since these are not ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, but science does not yet know what kind of language.
And then we went to visit. Our guide is from Kom-Omboi, it was very interesting for me to see how ordinary people live not in the resort area, but inside the country. What can I say, they live very differently.
The family of teachers, the older brother of our guide and his wife, live quite well by local standards. A history teacher gets $50; his wife, a private kindergarten teacher, gets $30.
A completely European-looking 3-room apartment, of course, furnished with local flavor. Very nice, nice people. As expected, we were treated to a dinner-soup with cereals and did not understand what kind, kebab, chicken, salad, as usual in Egyptian cuisine, several sauces, rice and of course tea. True, I didn’t want hot soup in the heat, but I had to, out of decency, at least try it.
But when we came to another house, I just got goosebumps. It's not poverty, it's poverty. When you see this on TV, this is one thing, but when you find yourself in such an environment in reality, this is ...An earthen floor, adobe walls, children who have never had better toys than a rag doll.
My daughter and I returned to the ship with complicated feelings.
In the evening, Galabea party was on the ship. Everyone had to come in galabeys.
The crosses are more like Orthodox ones, the benches are like in Catholic churches, but on the benches men sit separately, women separately. At the temple there is a cafe where Christian youth gathers - the church is not only a place for prayer, but also such a kind of House of Culture for Christians. Then, on a carriage for $ 3, they made a sightseeing tour of Aswan in the evening.
DAY 5. And finally, we are going to the long-awaited Abu Simbel. And more info for travelers - a trip to Abu Simbel is possible ONLY with an escort. For example, I learned about it only in Egypt. So, even if you get to Aswan without problems, then you will have to look for someone to go to Abu Simbel itself with. The road took about 2.5 hours, looking around is rather boring - the desert is all around, but not the same as near Hurghada - rocky, more sand. And now my daughter's dream has come true - all this beauty is in front of us! Not a single picture, not a single film will convey all the beauty and grandeur of this place.
I was personally impressed no less than the pyramids. It’s a pity that you can’t take pictures inside both temples, but there is something to see there!
Then the way back. Quick lunch on the crabs. Fast because only we left the ship that day and waited for us to have lunch and vacate the cabin. Some of the guests finished their journey the night before. The rest (who have a 7-day cruise) sailed to Cairo on the same ship.
On the way back, we had to travel from Aswan to Luxor by train. And here, there is a nuance. The fact is that in Egypt there are trains that are used by locals, and there are purely for tourists. And not the fact that the train for tourists will go at a convenient time for you. It turned out that the tourist train was running only at 19-00, and the local one just at 15-00. Therefore, to get on the local train had to resort to tricks. By the way, there is a police control at the exit to the platform.
And yet, train tickets can be bought already right on the train quite officially. I must say that when I saw our train, at first I almost got hysterical. It's just that our guide decided to joke, and did not immediately explain in which car of this train we would go. Because class 3 cars are something indescribable. People, like herrings in a barrel, women wrapped up to their very eyes, a bunch of children, things, everyone is screaming, everyone is pushing, no, Gogol is needed here to describe this. Well, our class 1 car is a completely different matter. Comfortable, with soft folding seats, like in an airplane, with air conditioning, a salesman with a trolley periodically walks, offers tea, coffee, drinks, sandwiches. A small feature of the national railway - no one announces the departure on the train, just at the stops the doors closed and the train went. No you: "Dear passengers, the train is leaving"! The road from Aswan to Luxor took 3.5 hours. In Luxor arrived after 18 hours.
While we were on the train, we decided what was best: to leave the same evening at 20:00 by a local bus to Hurghada, or spend the night in Luxor and go to Hurghada by car in the morning. We decided that we would not waste time and take a local bus. The bus also turned out to be very comfortable, they also offered drinks and food, some kind of Arab action movie was played on TV. But we already slept almost all the way, all the same, the day was tiring.
Despite the fact that we were very tired on the last day, the daughter said that it was worth it. For me, this was the main thing. Of course, it is difficult to talk about all the emotions and impressions that we received, there were a lot of them!
I want to express my deep gratitude to our guide Imad for organizing our trip, for interesting excursions and for the fact that he was not only our guide and translator, but also a nanny, an animator, and a guardian angel all rolled into one.
